Editorial - Conferences

Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 7 (1997), 129.

In this issue of EJAIB we see the addition of the subtitle, the Official Journal of the East Asian Association of Bioethics (EAAB). As introduced in the July issue, EAAB has adopted EJAIB to be the journal. All members of EAAB will receive EJAIB, in fact half the members of EAAB were already receiving and often contributing to EJAIB. We do encourage more members to contribute.

The title of this editorial is conferences, and we have been working on the UNESCO Asian Bioethics Conference (ABC'97) and the Third International Tsukuba Bioethics Roundtable for over a year. We are expecting to welcome about 50 foreigners to Japan, about half of them come to Tsukuba on the way to Kobe. From the 30 October to 8 November this should be an exciting time in bioethics in Japan, with the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Japan Association of Bioethics here in Tsukuba between these two international meetings. A journal allows people to work on ideas and debate with many persons who cannot always come to conferences. We encourage people who could not obtain financial assistance to these meetings to at least work on ideas through the conference format of a journal.

There was not sufficient room in this issue to include the updated programs of the conferences, but these are available through the Internet, or have been posted to speakers and registrants. Closer to the time the abstracts will appear on the Internet, and we would also welcome comments from people who are unable to join us in person.

In this issue there are several papers on genetics, including cloning, and a study of eugenic policies in China. Given the recent admissions of eugenic sterilizations in Sweden, it would be wrong for Europe to criticize Asia in the abuse of human rights. The paper by Pollard and Gilbert, and response by Leavitt, discuss how bioethics may develop into bioscience ethics. A further clinical case by Shirahama and Asai brings us back to earth with applying bioethics. The lengthy paper by Macer et al. reports the results of a telephone survey, which complements books on attitudes to biotechnology published by Eubios Ethics Institute.

There is still time to decide to join most of these writers, and many of the past contributors to EJAIB in person. The next issue will be just before the meetings, so we welcome some comments from the readers.

- Darryl Macer

Go back to EJAIB 7(5) September 1997
Go back to EJAIB
The Eubios Ethics Institute is on the world wide web of Internet:
http://eubios.info/index.html